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The purpose of this paper is to show how blogging has grown as an online phenomenon.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how blogging has grown as an online phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
Examines the way that blogs have become a phenomenon that embrace private authors who go online to write personal diaries through to representatives from different types of commercial, political and voluntary organisations who utilise them for a range of information exchange, debating, promotional and support purposes.
Findings
As blogging grows as an online phenomenon its impact in areas such as news, politics, and social networking is being taken ever more seriously. While the internet has been held up by governments as holding great economic and political promise, acting as a vehicle that can enhance public services, empower and engage citizens, and trigger new ways of doing business, the reality in terms of how it is actually applied can be poles apart from the ideal.
Originality/value
The paper provides an overview of blogging and introduces the papers in this special issue.
Details
Keywords
Barrie Gunter, Vincent Campbell, Maria Touri and Rachel Gibson
The purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of blogging in the news sphere. If blogs represent a genuinely new breed of news provision, then they should adhere to some…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the emergence of blogging in the news sphere. If blogs represent a genuinely new breed of news provision, then they should adhere to some of the founding principles of mainstream news and journalism. A key principle in this respect is news credibitility.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a review of recent literature about news blogging and assesses whether news blogs manifest many of the core attributes of mainstream news and journalism. The review considers the attributes that have previously been identified as defining good quality news and competent journalism and then applies some of these principles to “news” blogging.
Findings
There is no doubt that blogs have emerged as news sources of increasing significance and there have been occasions when they can be influential in setting news agendas. The essential qualities of credibitiltiy and capturing public trust in the news sphere, however, often depends upon the established reputation of known news “brands”. Although some blogs have emerged as reliable information sources in some specialist areas, they have yet generally to assume the key characteristics of mainstream news that drive public trust.
Originality/value
This paper provides an up‐to‐date review of a topic that is rapidly developing and attempts to set out some foundations on which further analysis of news blogging can be constructed.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to offer greater insight in the role of blogs in the creation of a more transparent news media system and a more democratic political reality.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer greater insight in the role of blogs in the creation of a more transparent news media system and a more democratic political reality.
Design/methodology/approach
Framing theory is employed as a conceptual tool to re‐interpret existing evidence of the performance of news blogs during situations of political conflict and war. A theoretical analysis is developed setting out the premises of the challenge that blogs can pose to the framing of conflict by mainstream media. The analysis incorporates empirical examples of reporting conflict and war in the blogosphere. Finally, with the aid of international relations theories, the role of blogs is evaluated in terms of the political transparency and accountability they could offer during conflict and war.
Findings
The analysis demonstrated that by promoting alternative and progressive voices, blogs have the capacity to shift the power over framing away from the usual sources in the news reporting of political conflict and turn the media system into a greater constraining factor for governments than even before.
Originality/value
The paper presents a novel approach to the interaction between blogs and mainstream media by combining theories from the disciplines of communications and international relations. The analysis generated a hypothesis that can be empirically assessed with the investigation of the framing output of influential news blogs and mainstream news media during political conflict and war.
Details
Keywords
Barrie Gunter, Anders Hansen and Maria Touri
This paper aims to investigate relationships between reported alcohol consumption and exposure to alcohol advertising.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate relationships between reported alcohol consumption and exposure to alcohol advertising.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of young people (17‐21 years) was carried out in which they were questioned about their alcohol consumption habits, types of alcohol they consume, exposure to alcohol advertising, and a range of other factors linked to drinking (e.g. parental and peer groups alcohol‐related behavior and attitudes). General alcohol consumption was measured within three time‐frames: own lifetime, past year and past month.
Findings
The results showed no significant relationships between exposure to any type of alcohol advertising (cinema, magazine, TV) and general alcohol consumption. Exposure to televised advertising for alcopops and for cider in each case emerged as a significant predictor of consumption of each of those types of alcohol. While there was no evidence that alcohol advertising plays a significant role in shaping general alcohol consumption among young people, it does seem to play a part in driving consumption of certain types of alcoholic beverage.
Research limitations/implications
Self‐completion questionnaires were used and the sample was based in central east England.
Practical implications
The results can inform current debates about the role of advertising in young people's drinking.
Originality/value
A wider range of alcohol‐related consumption and alcohol advertising exposure behaviors was examined in this study than in most other published surveys that have investigated relationships between these classes of variables.
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Keywords
Maria Giovina Pasca, Maria Francesca Renzi, Laura Di Pietro and Roberta Guglielmetti Mugion
The present study aims to synthesize and conceptualize, through a systematic literature review (SLR), the current state of gamification knowledge in the tourism and hospitality…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to synthesize and conceptualize, through a systematic literature review (SLR), the current state of gamification knowledge in the tourism and hospitality (T&H) sector, providing a roadmap for future research recommendations for service research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on a systematic literature review and adopts a systematic quantitative approach to summarize existing evidence on gamification usage in the T&H sector, focusing on relevant service literature on gamification. The authors analyze 36 papers published between 2011 and 2019.
Findings
The authors synthesize existing knowledge into five themes describing gamification's role in T&H (Edutainment, Sustainable behavior, Engagement factors, Service provider-generated content and User-generated reviews). Then, a cross-analysis of the five themes reveals the pivotal elements (affordances, behavioral and psychological outcomes, and benefits) generated by gamification mechanics in T&H, simultaneously highlighting potential implications and relevant insights for service literature. The review identifies critical issues affecting gamification research and provides a future research agenda, considering opportunities for T&H and service research.
Originality/value
The study provides the first SLR investigating gamification in T&H. The findings present potential implications and relevant insights for T&H contributing to the construction of a more holistic understanding of gamification adoption in service research.
Details
Keywords
Dina Amaro, Ana Maria Caldeira and Cláudia Seabra
The twenty-first century has been characterized by the intensification of concerns related to tourism safety and security. These issues are playing an increasingly significant…
Abstract
The twenty-first century has been characterized by the intensification of concerns related to tourism safety and security. These issues are playing an increasingly significant role over recent years, due to the increase of terrorist attacks in several countries, political instability, natural disasters, epidemics and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding tourist safety and security in the tourism context is, thus, critical to increasing the competitiveness and attractiveness of tourist destinations.
Through the bibliometric methods of performance analysis and science mapping, this study aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on tourist safety and security at the destination.
A total of 445 records published between 1989 and 2021, covering 191 academic journals and 1,000 authors from 91 different countries, were analysed.
The main findings show that this research field has attracted a substantial and growing interest of researchers, institutions, journals and countries. Opportunities for future research are related to decision making, tourist behaviour, risk perception, tourism safety, destination image, safety engineering and sustainable development.
In the post-pandemic context, this research field can be critical to providing a set of tailored strategies to improve tourists' safe destination environment and increase tourism destinations' competitiveness and attractiveness.
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Julian Marx, Beatriz Blanco, Adriana Amaral, Stefan Stieglitz and Maria Clara Aquino
This study investigates the communication behavior of public health organizations on Twitter during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil. It contributes to the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates the communication behavior of public health organizations on Twitter during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Brazil. It contributes to the understanding of the organizational framing of health communication by showcasing several instances of framing devices that borrow from (Brazilian) internet culture. The investigation of this case extends the knowledge by providing a rich description of the organizational framing of health communication to combat misinformation in a politically charged environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected a Twitter dataset of 77,527 tweets and analyzed a purposeful subsample of 536 tweets that contained information provided by Brazilian public health organizations about COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. The data analysis was carried out quantitatively and qualitatively by combining social media analytics techniques and frame analysis.
Findings
The analysis showed that Brazilian health organizations used several framing devices that have been identified by previous literature such as hashtags, links, emojis or images. However, the analysis also unearthed hitherto unknown visual framing devices for misinformation prevention and debunking that borrow from internet culture such as “infographics,” “pop culture references” and “internet-native symbolism.”
Research limitations/implications
First, the identification of framing devices relating to internet culture add to our understanding of the so far little addressed framing of misinformation combat messages. The case of Brazilian health organizations provides a novel perspective to knowledge by offering a notion of internet-native symbols (e.g. humor, memes) and popular culture references for misinformation combat, including misinformation prevention. Second, this study introduces a frontier of political contextualization to misinformation research that does not relate to the partisanship of the spreaders but that relates to the political dilemmas of public organizations with a commitment to provide accurate information to citizens.
Practical implications
The findings inform decision-makers and public health organizations about framing devices that are tailored to internet-native audiences and can guide strategies to carry out information campaigns in misinformation-laden social media environments.
Social implications
The findings of this case study expose the often-overlooked cultural peculiarities of framing information campaigns on social media. The report of this study from a country in the Global South helps to contrast several assumptions and strategies that are prevalent in (health) discourses in Western societies and scholarship.
Originality/value
This study uncovers unconventional and barely addressed framing devices of health organizations operating in Brazil, which provides a novel perspective to the body of research on misinformation. It contributes to existing knowledge about frame analysis and broadens the understanding of frame devices borrowing from internet culture. It is a call for a frontier in misinformation research that deals with internet culture as part of organizational strategies for successful misinformation combat.
Details
Keywords
1.61 France 1.611 V.V.F. En juillet 1959, deux villages de vacances familiaux ouvraient leurs portes dans deux petites cités touristiques du Bas‐Rhin: Obernai et Albe. Répondant …
Abstract
1.61 France 1.611 V.V.F. En juillet 1959, deux villages de vacances familiaux ouvraient leurs portes dans deux petites cités touristiques du Bas‐Rhin: Obernai et Albe. Répondant à une sollicitation du Conseil Général de ce département, la S.C.I.C. acceptait de tenter une expérience de tourisme social qui, tout en s'inspirant du précédent des Maisons Familiales de Vacances, se lançait délibérément dans une politique de construction, sur des terrains cédés par les communes, d'authentiques villages de vacances capables d'accueillir chacun 500 personnes au moins.